Category: Marketing Automation

Compound Annual Growth Rate, CAGR, is your rate of return for an investment over a specific period.
Calculating CAGR by hand is a rather involved process, so below we’ll go over how you can quickly calculate CAGR in Excel.

CAGR Excel Formula
The formula for calculating CAGR in Excel is:
=(End Value/Beginning Value) ^ (1/Number of Years) – 1
The equation uses three different values:

End value, which is the amount of money you’ll have after the period has passed.
Beginning value, which is the amount of money you began with.
Number of years, which is the total number of years that have passed.

Below we’ll go over an example of how to calculate CAGR for a five years time frame in Excel using the sample data set shown below:

1. Identify the numbers you’ll use in your equation. Using the sample data set above,

The end value is 2143 (in cell B6).
The beginning value is 1000 (in cell B2).
The number of years is 5 (in cell A6).

2. Input your values into the formula. 
Excel offers many shortcuts, so you can simply input the cell numbers that contain each of your values into the equation. Using the sample data set above, the equation would be
=(B6/B2) ^ (1/A6) – 1
This is what it looks like in my Excel sheet:

Note that the equation changes color to correspond with the cells you’re using, so you can look back and check that your inputs are correct before running the equation.

You can also enter actual values into the formula instead of cell numbers. The equation would then look like this:
=(2143/1000) ^ (1/5) – 1
3. Once you’ve entered your values, click enter and run the equation. Your result will appear in the cell containing the equation, as shown in the image below.

CAGR Formula in Excel as a Percentage
Your default result will be shown as a decimal. To view it as a percentage, right-click on the cell your result is in, select Format Cells and then Percentage in the dialogue box.
Your result will be converted to a percentage, as shown in the image below.

Now let’s go over a shortcut for calculating CAGR in Excel using the Rate function.
How To Calculate CAGR Using RATE Function
The RATE function helps you calculate the interest rate on an investment over a period of time.The formula for calculating CAGR is: 
=RATE(nper,, pv, fv)

nper is the total number of periods in the time frame you’re measuring for. Since you’re calculating annual growth rate, this would be 12.
pv is the present value of your investment (must always be represented as a negative)
fv is future value.

Note that the standard RATE equation includes more variables, but you only need the above three to calculate your CAGR.
Let’s run an equation using the sample table below where nperi is 12, pv is 100, and fv is 500.

1. In your sheet, select the cell that you want to contain your CAGR. I selected cell B5.
2. Enter the RATE formula and input your numbers. Note that you always need to express your present value as a negative, or you’ll receive an error message.
This is what my formula looks like.
Note that you can also simply enter the cell numbers that your values are in. With my sample table the formula would look like this:
=RATE(A2,,-B2,C2)
3. Click enter and run your equation. Using the sample data, my CAGR is 14%.
Now you know how to quickly and easily calculate your CAGR in Excel, no hand calculations required.

Lorde says, “Maybe the Internet raised us” in her song, A World Alone. This line stuck with me when I first heard the song and remains with me today, especially when considering what shapes my behaviors and quirks. I grew up and came of age in a world where people loved to share every little bit of their lives (maybe a little too much).Despite this (or maybe because of it), I became resistant to the idea of sharing things, from achievements to failures. But thinking about my career and personal growth, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be here without the oversharers. A YouTube video here, a LinkedIn post there – my life is a scrapbook of the lessons I learned from other people’s journeys.At the end of 2021, I decided to give a little peek behind the curtain of my life by sharing some of my goals for 2022 on Twitter. Primarily for accountability, but also just because sharing your journey to achieving your goals makes the journey feel less lonely.2022 goals (pinning this for future me)- make more money and grow my portfolio 💰 – join @beondeck’s marketing fellowship 💻- move out of my parents’ basement 🤦🏾‍♀️- start a newsletter/finally write a book✍🏾- travel to 3 countries ✈️— tamilore (@tamioladipo) December 5, 2021

At Buffer, one of our values is ‘default to transparency,’ which means that we’re a glasshouse – everyone can see what’s going on inside. It’s one of the things that drew me to working here. Another way to put it is that we ‘build in public,’ which is a concept that more people, especially founders, are adopting. It’s not just for them — transparency can apply to anything, including writing a book or working on an album (see the TikToker sharing her journey to creating a Disney musical).Most people balk at the idea of transparency. What if you make a mistake? What if nothing comes of your idea/project/company? But there are benefits to sharing your journey — including the struggles. This article delves into why you might want to take the transparent approach to goal-setting and achieving.Why consider transparency at all?One of the key ideas behind transparency or building in public, mainly pushed by Karthik Puvvada (KP), includes “expanding your luck surface area.” The idea is that transparency gives you or your business more opportunities to reach the community, investors, or audience that will connect with your journey. A few other reasons to consider transparency:Encouraging someone on a similar journey: An underrated part of sharing your journey is how much you can inspire others.Finding community: Having a community rally around you as you work towards a goal can encourage you to keep at it.Building trust: This is especially important if people count on your goals. By being transparent (and including proof of work) about where you are at each stage, you can build trust.Showing your expertise: Sometimes, building something in public or transparently sharing your journey to a specific goal is all the social proof you need.Staying accountable: If you’re constantly sharing what’s happening with your goals or project, you have people to answer when you start to flag – however medieval that sounds.Pushing the industry forward: One of the driving forces behind our choice to be transparent at Buffer is so we can encourage others to do the same. Checkly’s Pay Calculator is a great recent example partly inspired by Buffer’s own Salary Calculator.Lessons from experts on building in publicWho are the people who are taking on the challenge of building in public? Apart from pioneers like Joel Gascoigne (Buffer’s CEO) and Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt), we wanted to highlight other folks you can look to for inspiration. So we asked them all questions about building in public and practicing transparency, and this is what they had to say.Q: How do you practice transparency?A: Sharing revenue publiclyMonica Lent, Founder of Affilimate: “I spent about a year doing public income reports on my blog, where I shared the revenue from all my income streams: a content blog, a paid community, and my SaaS company. This was a great exercise in goal setting, and many people told me it inspired them to go full-time on their projects.At the time, I detailed how much revenue my businesses generated and what I spent on expenses like software, tools, contractors, and administration. My goal was to show people that revenue isn’t everything, and running a business can be expensive.”A: Documenting the process of buildingRitika Mehta built Marked (now acquired): “My newsletter & Twitter is where I talk about building products and my experience with building & running a startup.Guys👋, I have an exciting news to share 🤗🎉I sold @trymarked 😅 for $10kI knew it was going to happen someday but just happened so fast, on 1st Feb.The product was still on beta version, looked scrappy, had ~90 active users & started 9 months ago.Here’s a short 🧵— Ritika Mehta (@_ritikamehta) February 3, 2022

I tweet small updates weekly or bi-weekly & the newsletter is the leading platform through which I share my journey. It doesn’t only limit to positive parts but sharing struggles & vulnerabilities too. As a founder, it helps me build a community around my product, get initial users, feedback & marketing before I launch the product.”A: Applying personal practices to company valuesSamantha Anderl, Co-founder of Harlow: “My co-founder Andrea and I practice transparency in two ways. One way is the way we interface with our community, and the other is how we’re building our company. We’re building Harlow to help freelancers stress less and work happier. Part of that happens in the product, the other part comes through sharing our struggles, wins, and lessons learned with the community.”I’m on vacation this week for a friend’s wedding in a beautiful place, but we’re also gearing up for @MeetHarlow launch.Normally, I disconnect while traveling and focus solely on rest, relaxation, and fun.But this time, I’m doing things a little differently 👇🏻— Samantha Anderl (@SamanthaAnderl) March 18, 2022

A: Sharing personal experiences of building a businessLesley Sim, Founder of Newsletter Glue: “From day 1, we’ve built in public. Rather than share revenue numbers and metrics, I’ve always focused on sharing my experiences building the business, our roadmap, and screenshots of stuff we’re working on.Building a newsletter template directory.You can click on a template, and head immediately to a sandboxed demo to play around.Cool? pic.twitter.com/mSIIjuUX70— Lesley 🍕 (@lesley_pizza) March 25, 2022

I think everyone chooses to share different things, and there are corresponding upsides and downsides. I think the channel you choose to share on also matters a lot and determines what and how you communicate. Personally, I use Twitter. I’ve found it the best and easiest way to chat with like-minded folk without much mental overhead.”A: Share retrospectives and plans for the futureAllison Seboldt, Founder of Fantasy Congress: “I post monthly reflections on my blog called “retrospectives.” In each post, I share income and statistics from the past month, reflect on what I did the previous month, and discuss what I want to do next.”This is a bit late, but I’m picking up my monthly retrospectives again! Starting with a quick recap of last year for Fantasy Congress:- $12,806 total revenue- $949 MRR- Averaged around 6% churn per month- 3,363 new users- 275 new leagues👇(1/3) #buildinginpublic— Allison Seboldt (@allison_seboldt) February 13, 2022

Q: What advice would you give to anyone considering transparency?A: Take public feedback with a grain of saltMonica: “Many people have opinions, but very few have done what you’re doing and understand your customers and your business like you do. You can get all kinds of input, but it’s still on you to make the right decision for your business!”A: Build a relationship with your audienceRitika: “[Bulding in public] is like building a strong bond by sharing ups and downs. You’re being more honest to your customers & they build trust with you.”A: Write down your experiences for future reflectionSamantha: “When you’re building, you are moving quickly, and you don’t always have time to share your story at each exact moment. But if you can reflect on the notes you’re taking along the way, it will help you figure out the important pieces of the story your audience needs to hear. As an additional benefit, It’ll also help you reflect on the journey and see how far you’ve come.”A: Share a little more than what you’re comfortable withLesley: “A big part of the reason people are attracted to build in public posts is that it pulls back the curtains and gives lived experience and insight. So if you’re sharing super generic stuff, you’ll never see good results from building in public.”A: Just do itAllison: “It’s the most beneficial thing I’ve done on my entrepreneurial journey. The barrier to entry is low and the returns are huge.”Tips for being more transparentTransparency requires a conscious effort. You may not remember or see a reason to share specific events relevant to your efforts to build in public. However, even minor moments can help you find your community or vice versa. Here are some tips for practicing transparency.Share your goalsAlong with publicly documenting your goals, make it a habit to update what you’re working on as you go along. I chose Twitter – a popular platform for building in public – and I’m working on a more detailed personal blog post about my goals. In addition, some people use Medium or write newsletters on a weekly or monthly basis to share their progress (this may also be a good way to break in Twitter’s newsletter feature).To paraphrase Samantha, documenting your journey can help you reflect personally and determine which parts you want to share with your audience.Connect with a communityYou may need to do some research, but there’s nothing like working alongside like-minded people. There’s NaNoWriMo through which several writers have gotten their best-selling manuscripts. Or programs like Women Make where entrepreneurs and makers can support each other as they build products. Or even Flow Club, which is a great way to motivate yourself to work through tasks and stay accountable.🚀 Just F*ing Ship It 🚀30 days to build and launch something! 💪 Kick your ass and ship alongside the Women Make community. 💞Registrations are now open & everyone is welcome! 👉 https://t.co/IA6WbKWX2UA big thank you to @ahrefs for sponsoring the event!— Women Make (@women_make_) February 10, 2022

Create boundariesDetermine where you’d like to draw the line. What are you unwilling to share? Limit what you share and respect those limits. Monica shares some advice regarding boundaries, saying, “…building in public doesn’t HAVE to mean sharing all your revenue and metrics. You can build in public without disclosing detailed financial figures. So it’s not all or nothing – you can apply a build-in-public mindset without necessarily going full “open startup” and still get the benefits.”Lesley also summed up boundary-setting saying, “Be careful about what you choose to share. Building in public is a continuum, it’s not all or nothing.”Propose your ideas and ask for feedbackIt might be enough just to say you’re working on something and update once you’ve made progress. But asking people for feedback can help you refine your ideas and find inspiration among shared advice.Articulate your roadblocksLet people know about the challenges you’re facing and share how you overcame/plan to overcome them. Communicating your blocks can also be a good opportunity to seek advice from a community of people who might have gone through the same. By sharing your challenges, you can find a way to overcome themLesley shared a technical challenge she was facing on Twitter and was able to get a ton of helpful advice (and a solution) in her replies.Can I get some help troubleshooting?Twitter no longer shows up on my browser and I don’t know why?😅I’m using @ThomasWang’s excellent Minimal Theme for Twitter chrome extension. Disabling it doesn’t bring back twitter. So that might not be relevant. pic.twitter.com/1ZyYm15FQ8— Lesley 🍕 (@lesley_pizza) February 7, 2022

Share sneak peeks People love looking behind the scenes, so let them in on what’s to come. This gets people excited about your ideas and provides a fountain of positive commentary to look at when you’re hunting for inspiration. This could be a good strategy, especially for writers. For example, sci-fi author Brandon Sanderson constantly communicates with fans through live streams, blog posts, and “first looks” into his new books.Live with Brandon Sanderson (Secret Project Two Spoiler Stream) https://t.co/zNxtfJYJgJ— Brandon Sanderson (@BrandSanderson) March 16, 2022

Hannah Nicole Mae (@hannahnicolemae) on TikTok also does this with her fictional series that she’s turning into a book – and over 200,000 people are following along her journey. @hannahnicolemae The most giggly I’ve ever been writing anything #morallygrey #fantasy #assistanttothevillain #romancebooks #fyp ♬ original sound – Hannah Celebrate your wins – and share your failuresWe asked our contributors about the downsides of building in public, and Samantha said it best, “Building in public can be messy. To truly be transparent you need to share the wins, the struggles, the mundane – all of it. But that’s what makes it so compelling. People want to understand the full gravity of what it takes to build something.”Being vulnerable, both about your journey to success and the missteps, can help you and someone else in the same boat find empathy and inspiration to keep going.

Market research is an overarching term for gathering information from you customers about your business, and focus groups are one way to conduct market research.
Whether your focus group’s goal is to give feedback on a product or service or help you assess how your brand stands out in your competitive landscape, thought-provoking, open-ended questions are essential to a productive discussion.
Focus group questions should dive into the mind of a consumer. What do they think? How do they make their decisions? You want more than a yes or no answer, and your questions need to generate them. However, it is easier said than done. What can you ask beyond “What do you think of our product?” to provoke the most fruitful answers?

Here, we have compiled the most insightful questions you can ask in your next focus group to get the best insights from your participants.
Copy-and-paste the questions you like below into this note taking template for a ready-to-go, printable document you can bring to the session.
Featured Resource: Market Research Focus Group Template

Download the Template
For a free template for note taking during focus groups, a guide on conducting market research, and several other templates, download our Market Research Kit.

Focus Group Question Examples for Building Trust Among Focus Group Members
Before diving into deeper questions, it’s best to warm up the group with a couple of open-ended questions that allow participants to get to know each other a little bit. Participants should have the liberty to decide how much they want to share with the group. Don’t force anyone to share something they may not feel comfortable sharing.
By including a question that allows people to talk about something tangential to the topic of the focus group, your participants will begin to build empathy for each other. That empathy can grow into trust, which is essential for eliciting honest insights out of your group.
Here are a few questions you might ask to build trust:

“Share an aspect of your work or life experience that has brought you here today.”
“Why did you decide to join our focus group today?”
“When and how did you first come across our brand/product/service?”

Focus Group Question Examples to Encourage Follow-up and Continuation of Ideas
The most helpful insights that come from focus groups are often the most specific points. Challenge your participants to reflect on their comments if something sparks your curiosity. For instance:

“That’s a fascinating point that [name] just said — what do you all think of that?”
“Do you agree or disagree with [name]’s statement, and why?”
“[Name], you’ve been a bit quiet recently. Did you have any thoughts on this topic that you wanted to share?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Understanding Customer Perception of Your Product or Service
These questions will help you understand how people truly feel about your brand, product, or service. The focus here is on your company — not the larger industry landscape or your competitors.
Avoid stopping conversation here unless the group gets sidetracked. Open-ended questions can be daunting at first. Participants may not know where to start. However, hearing from the other participants will spark reflection on various aspects of your product or service. Be sure to allow each group member who has something to say to speak up before moving on to the next question.

“How would you describe our company to other people?”
“How would you describe our product/service to other people?”
“What words or feelings come to mind when you think about our company?”
“How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend?”
“How well do you feel we incorporate feedback from you, our customers, into our service/product?”
“What ultimately pushed you to purchase this product/service?”
“Where would you buy this product/service?”
“What do you like about this product that you may not find in a similar one?”
“When you think about our industry, which brands come to mind first?”
“Which other brands in our industry did you consider when you were shopping around?”
“Why didn’t you go with one of our competitors?”
“What other products/services come to mind when you look at this one?”

Focus Group Question Examples to Learn What Your Leads and Customers Want to See From You
Listening to your customers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement is crucial to retaining customers and turning them into promoters of your brand. It may be difficult to hear the answers to these questions, but turning customer pain points around will elevate your product or service to the next level.
Avoid defending your product or service or setting any limitations on these questions. Instead, frame them in a way that allows anyone to voice their feelings. Recognize that it can be daunting for anyone (especially people with whom you’ve built relationships) to share negative feedback, so thank them for their candor.

“If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about our product/service, what would it be?”
“What would you most like to add to or improve about this product?”
“What do you envision is the lifespan of this product/service before you upgrade or replace it?”
“Is there anything we haven’t touched on today that you would like us to know?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Understanding Your Buyer Personas
The following questions will help you understand the motivations of your target buyer persona, their habits, their responsibilities and decision-making power, and their preferences.
These questions will spark discussion about topics other than your company, product or service, and the competitive landscape.
Don’t worry if the conversation seems to stray far from your brand. The insights that people share will likely reveal what they find significant in their life and work. However, you must keep the group focused on the specific question you ask.

“Describe your job title and your day-to-day responsibilities.”
“What is one task where you feel you spend way too much time?”
“How do you define success in your role/your life?”
“What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to the problem that this product is supposed to solve?”
“When you browse online, on which websites do you spend most of your time?”
“What are the first three apps you open on your phone in the morning?”
“How do you prefer to receive communications from our company? (Specify what type of communication here — product updates, renewal notices, product/service coaching, meeting reminders, urgent alerts, etc.)”
“Would you be the one using this product/service most in your household/job? If not, who would be?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Competitor Research
These questions should spark discussion about the brands in your industry that are top-of-mind for consumers. It helps remove any biases that your team might have as people who work in the industry and know various players very well.
To encourage honesty, avoid agreeing with disparaging comments made about your competitors. Instead, use the opportunity to ask follow-up questions about what the participants don’t like about a specific product or brand.
Competitive research helps you identify competitors while also evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. This information allows you to compare how your products align within the industry and pinpoint any industry trends you may have overlooked.

“What companies come to mind when you think of our industry?”
“Which company do you consider first when shopping in our industry and why?”
“What are these companies doing well?”
“What do these companies need to improve?”
“What products/services do they have that you’d like to see from us?”
“What would it take for another company to beat out your top choice in our industry?”

To conduct a complementary research-based analysis of your competitors, download our Market Research Kit to access a S.W.O.T. analysis template.

Download the Template
Focus Group Question Examples for Generating Content on Your Industry
You might be looking to develop a content strategy for your brand, branch out into a new content medium, or generate new content ideas. Any successful content strategy prioritizes what your target buyer persona finds most engaging. A focus group is an effective way to ensure that you produce material on the right topics in the medium that your audience wants to consume.

“What is one recent trend you have noticed in our industry?”
“What is one strategy or tactic you think is underrated in our industry?”
“Where do you go to get a pulse on the things going on in our industry?”
“Who are the people in our industry who you look to as experts?”
“What format of content do you consume to keep up with our industry? Social media posts? Blogs/long-form posts? Podcasts? News outlets?”
“Which specific sources do you go to for information on our industry?”
“What gaps do you see in the content about our industry online? What are the topics on which you would like to see more education?”

Focus Group Question Examples for Understanding Product Demand for Something You Haven’t Yet Put Out in the Market
These eleven questions will help you understand the demand for a new product or service. These questions will uncover buying habits for a product you envision and whether there is a true product-market fit.

“What was your first reaction to the product?”
“How often do you/would you use this type of product?”
“Would you be the one deciding to purchase this product/service? If not, who would be?”
“When and where do you use our product?”
“When you think about the product, do you think of it as something you absolutely need, something you could do without, or something that’s somewhere in the middle?”
“How much would you be willing to pay for a product like this?”
“How would you ideally like to buy this product? Would you talk to a sales rep, or would you prefer to purchase it on your own?”
“What do you think this product is missing?”
“How would you describe someone you think would use this product/service?”
“If you ended up liking your experience with this product, could you see yourself repurchasing it? If so, how often?”
“If you could either have this product/service or the equivalent dollar value for you/your business, which would you choose? Why? (Specify the dollar value of your product/service when asking this question.)”

Focus Group Question Examples for Branding
The following questions help run word association brainstorms and generate potential names for a new product or company.

“What words come to mind when you think of our product category? (Example: “What words come to mind when you think of food delivery?”)”
“What words come to mind when you think of [insert a word that symbolizes the main value prop of your product/service here – for example, ‘efficiency,’ ‘speed,’ ‘health’]?”
If you have candidate names already:

“What is your initial reaction to this name?”
“What words come to mind when you hear this name?”
“How would you pronounce this? (Spell out the name on a piece of paper or whiteboard.)”

Ask, and you shall receive.
In your business, your consumer is the most important person. What they think is central to your business strategy — how they view your company and industry, what drives them to make a purchase, what their interests are. The answers to the above focus group questions will shape how you approach your business. You now have dozens of questions to get the conversation started, and you didn’t even have to ask.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Blogging has always been an effective content marketing strategy. However, sometimes, it can be difficult to put pen to paper – or more accurately, words to the screen.
That’s where blog post templates can come in handy.

In this post, we’ll equip you with a blogging template to use in Google Docs that follows a standard writing formula to capture your audience’s attention.
Why Use Google Docs for Blog Post Templates
The number one reason to use Google Docs for your blog post templates is the collaboration features.
The platform allows you to:

Share templates.
Manage editing permissions.
Request feedback on your content.
Download and convert into other file formats.
Back documents up the cloud.

Google Docs also allows you to easily copy documents. This means that once you create your template, anyone on your team can copy it and save it in their own folder.
Beyond the collaboration features, you can also work on your document offline – so if you are working in an area with no Wi-Fi, you can still get your work done.
Another helpful tool is the version history and recovery. Say you start writing one night and take out a whole paragraph. Then, the next day, you reconsider and decide you want to add it back in.
By accessing your version history, you can retrieve that paragraph and either copy it into the new version or restore the old one.
Additionally, if there are multiple users, you can see who made what changes. This makes it easy to know who to reach out to in case you have additional questions.
Google Docs Blog Post Template
A comprehensive, high-quality blog post doesn’t have to be long.
In fact, shorter is often sweeter for your readers who have limited time to devote to reading the massive amounts of content on the web.
But well-written blog posts should include three sections, which you may be familiar with if you close your eyes and think back to elementary school writing classes: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Here’s what’s included in each.
Have you ever tried to ___________? If so, you’ll know that it’s difficult because ___________________________. So what do you do?
Many people have found success by using ___________________. But there are a few things you should know before you implement ___________.
This post will tell you what you need to know to make sure ____________________ and successfully ________________.
If you’re looking for a _____________, here are the key things you’ll want to keep in mind:

Make sure your ____________ lets you _______________. If it doesn’t, you’ll have trouble ___________.
Ensure your ___________ has a ____________ so you can ____________.
Any good ______________ should let you _____________. This is important because _________________.

While not necessary, some great bonus features of a great _____________ are __________, ____________, and _______________.
Now that you know ________________, you’re ready to __________________ without worrying _______________.

Download 6 Free Blog Post Templates Now
Introduction
The introduction sets the stage for the problem you’re about to solve.
You’re not providing specific solutions in this section, just why it’s worth resolving. Here, you want to be relatable, getting your readers to nod in agreement.
An introduction like that could apply to any problem, product with a few language tweaks.
Note: While your blog will sometimes promote your own product or service, it shouldn’t exist solely for that reason. First and foremost, the content on your blog should help your readers solve a common problem.
Do you see why that structure works for an introduction? First, it presents a problem (“Have you ever tried to,” and “it’s difficult because”).
Secondly, it sets up what the post will be about (the solution “people have found success.”)
Lastly, it explains why it’s important you know those things (“to ensure,” and “that will let you successfully.”)
Body
The body explains the solutions to the problem you set up in the introduction.
Now that you’ve identified a problem for your reader, they’re ready to hear your proposed solution.
Your body can be written in paragraphs, with bullets, numbered lists, multiple headings, or a mix. Make use of whichever format is easiest for you.
Each section explains what your product (or, again, service with very minor language tweaks) should have to help the reader meet the goals outlined in your introduction. Then, it reiterates why that’s important.
Conclusion
The conclusion wraps up your post with a brief statement that’s reflective of the problem your post solved.
You can also use the conclusion to prompt your readers to engage in further conversation in the comments.
The conclusion should be kept short, however, to ensure readers don’t abandon your blog post before realizing there’s a call-to-action to covert on.
Filling in the Google Docs Blog Post Template
Alright, you’ve seen the template. Let’s fill in the blanks, shall we?

I wrote about social media monitoring tools because it’s something I know about; and as a result, I was able to write this “sample” blog post really quickly.
You’ll experience that, too, when you write about something you know inside and out! You just needed a little push – or a template to get you started.
Free Google Docs Blog Post Templates
Want other templates that can apply to various types of blog posts? We’ve got you covered. This download includes templates for creating:

A how-to post
A list-based post
A what-is post
A newsjacking post
An infographic post

Download 6 Free Blog Post Templates Now
Writing a Blog Post Template
The template content I’ve provided here is not intended to be copied and pasted into every blog post you write – that results in duplicate content for which you’ll be seriously punished in the SERPs.
It’s simply meant to show the structure you can follow to write a blog post because there really is a formula to it that makes it easy to write content that’s helpful for readers, and relatively quick and painless for you.
Feel free to swap in synonyms for words and phrases you see in the template, as long as it’s all original language.
It’s also important to note that this blog post gives you a template to help you start writing but there are other components of a successful blog post that you shouldn’t ignore.
I hinted at it above, but what would a blog post be without a call-to-action? It certainly wouldn’t help you drive any leads, that’s for sure. And to generate more click-throughs, you should spend some time crafting an excellent blog title.
You also need to think about optimization – did you include important keywords and internal links to other pages on your website?
Finally, remember that there are other structures for blog content that work, too. We don’t follow the same structure for every blog post we write, and we’ve seen structures other blogs use that work really well for them.
So go forth! Explore. Experiment. Get creative.
The goal isn’t that you follow this rigid template, it’s that you consistently create content that helps your reader. If you’re facing writer’s block, this template should help you out of that rut.

Imagine a world where you could start the sales process by selling directly to your best-fit, highest-value accounts. No wasted time trying to market to unqualified leads who aren’t the right fit for your business. Meaning, you could move straight into the phases of engaging and delighting your target accounts.
Talk about efficiency, right?
Account-based marketing allows you to weed out less-valuable companies early on and ensure Marketing and Sales are in complete alignment — in return, your team can leap into the critical processes of engaging and delighting those accounts much faster.
ABM helps your business work and communicate with high-value accounts as if they’re individual markets. By doing this — along with personalizing the buyer’s journey and tailoring all communications, content, and campaigns to those specific accounts — you’ll see greater ROI and a boost in customer loyalty.

Before we take a look at the additional benefits of account-based marketing and specific tactics you can implement at your company, let’s review its relationship with another important strategy: inbound marketing.

Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing
Batman and Robin. LeBron and D-Wade. Peanut butter and jelly. Arguably some of the strongest partnerships ever to exist 💪. These dynamic duos are forces to be reckoned with.
Similarly, when paired, account-based marketing and inbound marketing have the power to make waves (the good ones) for your business.
You might be wondering, “How exactly does this partnership work?”
Well, we just reviewed the definition of account-based marketing — as you learned, ABM is a highly-targeted strategy.
Meanwhile, inbound marketing is more foundational — this methodology and growth strategy allows you to attract customers through the creation of valuable content, SEO, and a delightful customer experience.
Rather than interrupting your target audience and customers (as you would with outbound marketing), inbound marketing allows you to more organically provide your audience with the information they want when they want it.
Inbound lays the foundation for a strong ABM strategy by allowing for highly-targeted and efficient resource allocation of high-value accounts. Here are a few more reasons to implement both ABM and inbound marketing strategies at your company:

Inbound marketing helps you attract target accounts and then ABM accelerates the flywheel so you can win and delight those accounts with a remarkable customer experience.
Inbound marketing lays the foundation for a strong ABM strategy — ABM builds off of inbound by allowing for targeted and efficient resource allocation of high-value accounts.
With this combined approach, you attract a broader group of prospects than you would while using just one method.
Your content has a two-for-one value — you can create and use content that serves both an ABM and inbound strategy (e.g. create a personalized case study for a target account that you also share on your website).
Software — such as HubSpot’s account-based marketing tool — exist to make it easy to implement ABM and inbound strategies in a complementary way.

🧡TLDR: Combine ABM and inbound marketing to grow better.
Account-Based Marketing Framework
ABM works differently from a traditional sales funnel. Though ABM can be implemented across different industries and types of businesses, a general framework needs to be followed to ensure its effectiveness. Here are the key components of an account-based marketing framework.
Marketing-Sales Alignment
The working relationship between sales and marketing organizations is mentioned several times throughout this article, because its importance can’t be overstated. To have a comprehensive approach to ABM, and to ensure target accounts receive an engaging buying experience, marketing and sales have to be on the same page.
When implementing ABM, sales and marketing organizations will need to agree upon resource allocation for each target account, assigning roles and responsibilities to ensure a seamless transition for the customer between marketing and sales activities, and determining how to measure the success of their efforts.
Account Qualification
How does your company determine what constitutes as a high-value account? Creating an ideal customer profile for the accounts your company wants to target is a key component to answering this question and creating an ABM framework. It’s also worth noting both marketing and sales should be participating in these conversations.
As you determine what qualifies a potential account, consider these factors:

Financials: With your company’s sales goals in mind, consider how much revenue can be generated from an account.
Scalability: Based on what you know about the potential account’s business performance, is there potential to grow the account in the future? Consider additional offerings your company could provide to retain and grow the account.
Competitive Landscape: Who are your competitors selling to? Understanding who is currently in the market for products and offerings like yours can help you identify future account opportunities.

Go-to-Market Approach
Once marketing and sales are aligned on approach and which accounts to target, it’s time to map out a go-to-market plan.
Understand exactly how a new customer would move through the sales process using an ABM approach. While preparing to go to market, you may find areas of friction that need to be addressed or areas of poor communication that can be strengthened.
Additionally, because a personalized experience is so important in account-based marketing, your team will want to be on the lookout for additional ways to add value and deliver a premium experience to these accounts.
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Account-Based Marketing Strategy
In order to get the most out of an account-based marketing approach, you’ll need a sound strategy in place. Consider following these steps to create and implement an effective account-based marketing strategy.
1. Create alignment between your sales and marketing teams.
Marketing-sales alignment is crucial for successful account-based marketing implementation. In order to create a custom buying experience, a customer will need to have a seamless transition from being acquired as a lead through the final sale.
To improve synergy between marketing and sales, both organizations must commit to clear communication and find a middle-ground to ensure the marketing team is acquiring leads the sales team can properly sell to.
If you’re just getting started with ABM, having a small task force of one marketer and one salesperson who work together to identify and sell to target accounts is sufficient. As your efforts scale, prioritize having your marketer support additional salespeople, as one marketer can typically remain aligned with up to 10 salespeople, and each salesperson can manage up to 10 accounts.
2. Conduct research to determine account personas.
Once marketing and sales align on their approach, the organizations can work together to ensure your company is targeting the correct account personas.
This usually begins with a period of research to identify which accounts to pursue. When identifying customer personas for an account-based marketing approach, marketers should consider:

The mission, vision, and business objectives of their ideal customer.
If any high-value accounts are currently engaging with your company’s Inbound approach.
The current stage of business maturity, company size, and growth trajectory.
Revenue model, and spending patterns.
The tools and platforms their ideal customer is currently using.

Though there are countless ways to identify key accounts, what’s most important is that marketing and sales agree on which accounts to target.
According to HubSpot Academy professor Kyle Jepson, “If your marketer is targeting one list of companies, and your salespeople are working a different list, you’re going to end up with an account-based mess.”
3. Create account plans.
After determining which accounts to target, it’s time to build account plans. This entails having the marketing and sales teams work together to map out the potential leads they’ll need to attract to reach their target accounts, and what content they’ll need to produce to engage with this audience.
When creating an account plan for your ABM strategy, keep these best practices in mind:

Though account plans for different customers can have some similarities, each plan should be tailored to the needs of that particular account.
Each account plan should be able to address these two questions: Who is included in the buying decision for this sale (e.g. decision maker, influencer, Legal, blockers, end-users)? What content is needed for each member of this buying committee?

4. Attract contacts associated with target accounts.
Ideally, using Inbound methodology will help you attract contacts associated with your target accounts. If you need additional contacts, your next step is to determine where your ideal contacts are currently going to find solutions related to what you offer and make sure your company is visible and represented in these spaces.
Places you may get in front of contacts include events, industry publications such as blogs and newsletters, and targeted ad placements. While it can be tempting to try to get visibility for your company through all available avenues, prioritize the channels that are most relevant to your target accounts and contacts.
5. Get the buying committee involved.
As you build relationships with key contacts, make sure both sales and marketing are actively engaging everyone who will be involved in the buying decision.
Though this point in the buying process is typically led by sales, marketing should be ready to support by creating relevant materials to reinforce messaging.
To measure the health of an ABM strategy, marketing and sales teams can use the following metrics:

Identifying the buyers associated with target accounts and tracking interactions with these buyers.
Data points related to the health of the deal—creation date, velocity, and close rate.
Revenue attributed to target accounts.

Once this strategy is in place, your marketing and sales organizations can repeat the process with new and existing key accounts to attract and retain high-value customers.

There are a number of benefits associated with account-based marketing. We’ve compiled the following list of commonly-noted results that positively impact all types of businesses.
1. Keep marketing and sales aligned.
Cross-team collaboration and improved communication across any organization are beneficial to growth. In terms of account-based marketing, this transparency and alignment will ensure your marketing and sales teams are focused on the same goals, stick to the mutually agreed-upon budget, and understand the specific roles of each internal stakeholder.
This alignment helps ensure all communications, interactions, and content are consistent for the accounts you work with. Meaning, no matter how long an account works with your company, your team members can pick up where others left off at any point in time without question — this creates a seamless and delightful customer experience.
🧡The easiest way to maintain internal account-based marketing alignment is with the help of software, like HubSpot, which makes connecting your marketing and sales teams exceptionally easy.
2. Maximize your business’s relevance among high-value accounts.
Account-based marketing requires you to personalize everything (e.g. content, product information, communications, and campaigns) for each account you invest your resources in. Through this personalization and customization, your relevance among these accounts is maximized.
That’s because your content and interactions are tailored in a way that shows them how your specific products, services, and other offerings are what they need to solve their challenges. Meaning, ABM allows you to angle your business in a way that makes it the most relevant and ideal option for your target accounts.
3. Deliver consistent customer experiences.
For your ABM strategy to be remarkable, you must maintain a long-term sense of delight among your accounts. Each account should feel as though they’re your business’s market of one. Tackle this by offering consistent customer experiences.
ABM is a strategy that requires major alignment between Sales and Marketing — so hone in on that when working to deliver those consistent experiences. Ensure all team members are aware of where an account is in the buyer’s journey — then, deliver personalized and timely communication, campaigns, product information, and pricing details.
4. Measure your return on investment.
With account-based marketing, you can easily measure return on investment (ROI) for each account you invest your resources and time in. This is beneficial because you can confirm whether certain accounts you invested in were ideal for your business.
Then, you can nurture and delight those accounts long-term to retain them, as well as identify and target similar accounts in the future. If your ROI proves the ABM tactics you implemented worked, use that data to propel your strategy forward.
5. Streamline the sales cycle.
Depending on your business, industry, and resources, the sales cycle typically looks something like this:
1) Prospect → 2) Connect → 3) Research → 4) Present → 5) Close → 6) Delight
With account-based marketing, this cycle is streamlined — by focusing your efforts on specific high-value target accounts, you save time and resources — meaning, you’ll have more time to focus on the stages of the cycle that positively impact your bottom line:
1) Identify Target Accounts → 2) Present to Target Accounts → 3) Close Target Accounts → 4) Delight Accounts
ABM streamlines your sales cycle by helping you stay efficient. Rather than experimenting with different tactics to prospect and qualify a large pool of leads, ABM ensures the accounts you target are the right ones for your business and vice versa. The sales cycle is also streamlined by your marketing and sales alignment as well as the consistent and personalized customer experiences you provide.
6. Expand business through account relationships.
The saying “quality over quantity” applies to account-based marketing. The process requires you to invest significant time and resources in engaging and delighting a group of carefully chosen, high-value accounts, versus trying to quickly close deals with less-qualified leads who may not be the best fit for your company in the long run.
By taking the time to build these trusting relationships with accounts, you’ll expand business by retaining those valuable customers longer. And considering it costs more to obtain customers than retain them, this will positively impact your bottom line.
Additionally, as a result of personalized, thoughtful, and consistent customer experiences, accounts will become loyal to your business over time — and loyal customers become your best marketers, promoters, and brand advocates. In other words, your accounts will help you expand your business among their networks (e.g. partners, customers) through referrals, word-of-mouth marketing, testimonials, and more.
Now let’s cover some account-based marketing tactics you can apply to your strategy to improve the likelihood of success.

ABM tactics are the building blocks of your strategy — so, work through the following list to ensure your ABM efforts and investment are successful.
1. Use a Strategic Account Planning Template.
To unify your account-based marketing team, use a strategic account planning template. The free template will help you outline your initiatives for each unique account, such as the:

Business Overview
Key Business Initiatives
Customer Relationship Landscape
Customer Products and Revenue
Account Competitor Analysis
Buying Process and Selling Points
Relationship Goals & Strategy
Sales Opportunities, Targets and Risks
Action Plan

Download the Free Account-Based Marketing Plan Template
2. Secure organizational ABM alignment.
One of the most important account-based marketing tactics is arguably one of the most straightforward: Secure organizational ABM alignment.
This means getting all internal stakeholders on board with the various factors related to your account-based marketing strategy. In doing so, it’ll be easier for your business to create consistent experiences for accounts and make sure your strategy is as efficient and streamlined as possible.
For example, your VP of Marketing and VP of Sales should secure organizational alignment and spread awareness regarding:

Marketing and sales team members who are directly involved in the strategy.
Account buying committee members and any other account stakeholders.
Your business’s point-of-difference for each target account.
ABM budget and resources.
ABM goals and KPIs.

3. Build your ABM team.
Marketing and sales leaders will want to align on how to build your ABM team. They should identify a minimum of one marketer and one sales rep who will be completely dedicated to the accounts you work with.
These people will create and publish content for accounts as well as work to manage and close business deals with each account’s buying committee. (As a rule of thumb, try to limit your team size to no more than ten sales reps and one marketer.)
In addition to the marketer(s) and sales rep(s), don’t forget to identify any other internal key players — such as customer success reps — who should be aware of and aligned on your ABM strategy.
4. Identify and pick your ideal set of target accounts.
Identify and pick your ideal set of high-value target accounts to invest your time and resources in.
Here are some recommendations on how you can do this:

Set search alerts for your ideal customer profile on LinkedIn.
Create a workflow that filters incoming qualified leads based on specific criteria (e.g. company size, industry, etc.) and tags them as an ideal customer type in your CRM.
Ask, “If we could replicate one deal from last year, what would it be?” Then, use the characteristics of that deal (e.g. industry, company size, value) to help you identify other good-fit customers.
Pick target accounts based on a particular industry or geographical location.
Review major companies and leads who are using and engaging with your inbound content but don’t have a deal attached (yet!).
Identify the lighthouse accounts you could use for reference.
Stick to no more than 10 accounts per sales rep.

5. Encourage Marketing and Sales to create account plans together.
Throughout this guide, you’ve probably picked up on the fact account-based marketing is a team effort. That’s why ensuring appropriate marketing and sales team members are involved in account planning is so important.
Make sure Marketing and Sales ask the following questions while they work on account plans:

Who will we need to know at each account (e.g. buying committee members and account stakeholders)?
What content will we need to attract and engage account buying committee members (and any other stakeholders)?
Which channels will we use to share content with the right people at each account?
How will we (marketers and sales reps) provide the right type of support throughout each stage of the strategy and sales process — in other words, how will sales help at the outset and how will marketing support in the later stages?

🧡Store your account plans as pinned notes in your HubSpot CRM, Google Docs, Asana Boards, pinned messages in Slack, and more to allow for easy access and collaboration.
Here are a few other tips Marketing and Sales can use to make account plans successful:

Ensure Marketing and Sales align on your product or service’s value proposition and point-of-difference for every account.
Create personalized content — or update existing content — so it’s tailored to each unique account.
Customize your allocated resources and budget for each account.

6. Attract contacts from high-quality accounts.
Next, you’ll want to attract the buying committee members and stakeholders of your target accounts. Depending on how long you’ve been in business and any previous ABM work you’ve done, you may or may not already have contacts for specific accounts.
The key to successfully attracting high-quality accounts is to personalize content to those accounts — this will help you elevate brand awareness and maximize relevance among audience members.
Here are some GDPR-compliant recommendations for attracting high-quality accounts:

Engage accounts on social media (e.g. determine which platforms they’re on, join the groups they’re in, contribute to conversations they’re a part of, and share helpful and relevant content you’ve created).
Produce a podcast or video series and invite a leader from the account to be a special guest.
Sponsor a booth at a target account’s conference or event.
Send direct messages via social media and direct mail via email or post.
Communicate through LinkedIn InMail outreach (do this simply and without ever leaving HubSpot via the LinkedIn integration).
Build custom landing pages tailored to the needs, questions, and concerns of accounts.
Offer gifts for engagement and interaction (e.g. prizes, swag, and discount codes).
Distribute content such as blog articles across channels that are relevant to each account (e.g. website, social media, and magazines).
Create ad campaigns and social ads to target different factors such as location, skill, and job title.
Ask current contacts, accounts, and customers for referrals.
Invite contacts to (physical or digital) events and ask attendees to invite their colleagues.

7. Forge strong relationships with the account’s buying committee.
Once you’ve attracted high-value accounts, it’s time to forge strong relationships with their buying committees. This is something your team will likely work on over an extended period of time — in fact, it often takes months and even years to develop these bonds. Think of this tactic as one tied to delighting your accounts — you never stop the process of delight.
Here are some thoughts on how you can forge strong, long-lasting relationships with an account’s buying committee.

Provide education around the value your business — and your product/ service — brings accounts through tailored interactions and engagement.
Create and share personalized content, such as case studies, to prove the ways you’ll exceed expectations and resolve the challenges of each account.
Communicate one-on-one when possible to make buying committee members feel like they’re your only priority.
Host events with and for account members (e.g. dinner) so they get to know your brand and team on a personal level.
Stick to organized, well-timed meetings.
Use email sequencing to enhance all communication, be professional, and maintain consistency.

🧡HubSpot’s ABM Software Target Accounts Home and Account Overview features will help you forge strong relationships.
Learn how to showcase your company’s success using compelling case studies with a free case study creation kit.

8. Measure and analyze your ABM results (and iterate as needed).
While working through and upon completion of the tactics above, it’s crucial you monitor your success. By reviewing and analyzing your ABM results, you’ll identify any gaps or parts of your strategy that need to be changed. This will allow you to make your strategy more effective for your business, marketing and sales teams, and accounts.
Here are some examples of common account-based marketing KPIs that provide insight into how you’re doing:

Deal creation
Account penetration (net new contacts added to an account)
Account engagement
Deal-to-close time
Net-new revenue
Percent of deals closed

🧡For support with your analysis, enlist the help of HubSpot’s library of 12+ ABM reports and pre-built ABM reporting dashboard to gain valuable insight into how to modify your ABM strategy for greater success.
Account-Based Marketing Tools
As you’re moving target accounts through the sales process, automation is a key component to streamlining ABM efforts.
ABM automation allows your business to target key customers with a customized approach to seamlessly move them through the sales process. When looking for account-based marketing software, you’ll want to make sure your platform has the following functionalities:

Identification: The ability to accurately identify potential customers and accounts.
Engagement: Cross-platform functionality to help your company keep the conversation with potential customers going.
Analytics: You’ll need access to relevant data to understand how well your approach is performing.

An example of a product that offers these key features is RollWorks, an all-in-one account-based platform that seamlessly integrates with your CRM.
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Account-Based Marketing Examples
Now that you understand the fundamentals of an account-based marketing strategy, let’s walk through a few examples of how ABM has worked for real businesses.
1. Restaurant Furniture Plus
This wholesale restaurant furniture supplier previously relied on search traffic and paid Google ads to attract new customers.
After identifying their ideal customer (scaling chain restaurants), the company implemented an account-based marketing strategy to get in front of restaurant owners who were a good fit for its products. This strategy has helped Restaurant Furniture Plus save money on paid advertising, and increase its base of recurring customers.
2. HealthLink Dimensions
Healthcare data company HealthLink Dimensions partnered with marketing agency Acclaro to implement an account-based marketing strategy. HeathLink Dimensions sought to expand their offerings to health insurance providers, and ran into challenges getting new contacts in its funnel.
After working with Acclaro to use an ABM strategy, HealthLink Dimensions experienced a 234% increase in its new customer pipeline.
3. BlueYonder

BlueYonder is a supply chain-management company that helps businesses optimize their supplier activities.
In 2019, the company began testing an ABM approach with a small group of accounts. This initial test leveraged advertising and personalized content for the initial group of accounts and resulted in $10 million generated in pipeline.
B2B Account-Based Marketing
B2C companies typically focus their marketing efforts on touching a pain point or desire of the end-user, with hopes that the individual will make the decision to buy. B2B works a little differently.
When selling to other businesses, there is rarely one person making a purchasing decision. Depending on the size of the company you’re selling to there may be an entire group of people who all provide input on the final buying decision.
An ABM strategy can be particularly helpful for B2B companies who are looking to build long-term relationships with key accounts. In fact, 76% of B2B marketers who used ABM in 2020 reported an increased ROI compared to other forms of marketing.
LinkedIn Account-Based Marketing
According to the 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report, over 70% of marketers said their company uses social media to target accounts. LinkedIn can be a beneficial platform for targeting accounts, especially for B2B companies.
LinkedIn has a feature called Company Targeting that allows you to use LinkedIn’s directory of over 13 million company pages for your ABM efforts. With this tool, you can upload a list of companies you’d like to reach, and create ad campaigns that can specifically target individuals at these companies.
Additionally, LinkedIn can help you create a more personalized experience for your target accounts through genuine relationship-building with your buying committee.
Using LinkedIn to find and engage with the right decision makers at the companies you’d like to work with can be a helpful, thoughtful alternative to using third-party data to identify potential contacts.
Here’s how Adobe used LinkedIn to support account-based marketing efforts.

Grow Better With Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By working through the tactics we’ve listed above and implementing software — such as HubSpot’s ABM software — for your marketing and sales team to use together, you’ll identify valuable accounts more efficiently, reduce any friction impacting your flywheel, and grow better.

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